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Dutch police question suspect in stabbings of 2 Americans

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Dutch police officers point their guns at a wounded 19-year-old man who was shot by police after stabbing two people in the central railway station in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, Friday Aug. 31, 2018. Police investigators in Amsterdam included an extremist attack as a possible motive for the stabbings of two people at a busy railway station Friday as authorities in the Dutch capital reported that the suspect shot by police is an Afghan citizen. (AP Photo)

By MIKE CORDER, AP
THE HAGUE, Netherlands

The U.S. State Department offered help Sunday to investigators in the Netherlands who are treating the stabbings of two American tourists at Amsterdam’s main railway station as a possible extremist attack.

State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said the U.S. was “ready to assist Dutch authorities in their investigations as appropriate.”

“Dutch authorities have announced that investigations are focused on a terrorist motive for this unprovoked, horrifying attack,” Nauert said in a statement. “The United States stands with our Dutch allies and others in our common fight against terrorism in all forms.”

At a hospital on Sunday, detectives questioned the 19-year-old Afghan citizen who is a suspect in the Friday stabbings. Amsterdam police shot and wounded him.

Amsterdam Police spokesman Ruben Sprong said the suspect, identified only as Jawed S. under Dutch privacy rules, was scheduled to appear at a closed hearing with an investigating judge on Monday.

The Americans also remained hospitalized with “serious but non-life threatening injuries,” Sprong said. Their identities haven’t been made public.

Dutch authorities said the suspect has a German residency permit and that his home in Germany was searched for the stabbing investigation.

The city government in Amsterdam said Saturday that, based on the suspect’s first statements, “he had a terrorist motive.” It did not reveal what he said.